IyouweBlog

This is from a Malaysian parent, educated in Malaysia, Singapore and live in Silicon Valley and have managed groups in high tech companies. Have paid/still paying tuition to Harvard, Stanford and Caltech.
During the course of my professional career, I have hired many engineers from the world over, many from top rank US universities. Whom you hire depends very much on what we need to get done. Sometimes a super technicians can do things a trained engineer has a hard time doing. So, qualification is important, but there are exceptions. However, a well trained engineer who has both theoretical training and hands on skill is hard to beat.
A common question in this forum is what are the prospects in a field, be it medicine, engineering, law, econs etc. We have to look at this from multiple perspectives, is the field getting saturated, how big is the field, how good can one be and whether that is what you want to do for the most part of your life. There is always room for the best person in a field, in an open economic system. So find out what you want and start developing skills in related areas.
Globalization enlarges the number of people participating in a field, you are no longer competing with people in your own country, you have to think in terms of global competitiveness and what can you bring to the global community. If you have that, your market is huge. If you do not have something special, you have to compete in cost (or service …).
For those aiming for the world’s top universities, do your best to get in, however, to shine in the top universities you need to have something you can be competitive in (there are people going for branding — I don’t think that should be your goal), a place you you can develop your skills and confidence in. Do not expect them to spoon feed you, if they do when you ask for water they may feed you with a water hydrant !
Medicine is a good profession, but there is plenty of opportunities in engineering, computer science if you are good at it. The problem with a lot of unemployed IT graduates in Malaysia is that a lot of them cost more (compare to India/China) and the standards are not very good. We have to move to the level of new product creation to gain the maximum benefit.

I may not be able to keep up with replies here, but I think there are many in here who can contribute too. The aim here is to share some of the experience here, to give the younger generation points of reference in their choice of goals/career.

I came from a relatively poor family in East Malaysia. When I was in primary school, I was one of those students who owed the school the $3 per month school fees for a while. My schooling was briefly disrupted during confrontation, almost drop out of school !
However, science/electronics always facinated me, I spent most of my pocket money on books and electronic components during my secondary school days. Read all the electonics megazines (Wireless World, Radio World etc) I could get my hands on. Through my friend who had a brother in university, got and read college physics and chemistry books when I was in F4 to F6. Got accepted in oversea schools/universities, but had no money to go. By Form 6, found out that the state government had no scholarship opening for electronics engineers, federal over sea scholarships were reserved for Bumis. Who need semiconductors ? I was a double math student, decided not to go for medic because of my interest in electronics. Had read a Bell Labs publiction on “The 10 Inventions that changed the world” , in Chinese. Little did the publisher knew that description on the invention of transistors changed my life.
Finally my familly got enough money to support me through MU/SU to pursue my interest. I went to SU, visied their lads etc and then MU, found that SU was more focused in electronics than MU, which concentrated mostly in power systems. Got the best education I could with limitted resources. Join a MNC as part of the start up team after graduation, relocated to Silicon Valley to do product development and R&D. It was work and graduated EE courses at Stanford for a while until I got involved in a start up company. Some of the products we work on can be found in some museum pieces now.
I am the generation who saw the first silicon transistors as a kid (germanuium before that), design and developed some of the circuits and processes that end up in making the IC chips and computers of the day. The hobby I had became the profession and because of my hobby, I became quite good at it. At the same time, the technology provide jobs to many and help in the economic transformation of a number of countries. Meanwhile I rose to senior management positions in the MNCs in US.
How did Harvard, Stanford and Caltech come in? When my boys were growing up I wanted them to have fun in what they were doing, as I did. They did and became quite good in what they do, good enough to stand out and be recognised by the top universities, to be recruited. They ended up each going to Harvard, Stanford & Caltech.
My point here is, life is not about what we don’t have, it is about what is the best use of the opportunity open to us. If you are from a local university, it does not mean it is hopeless, you have to find ways to be very good in what you want to do. My early interest gave me years of head start compare to others who take up the profession later. Do not blindly follow the advice from the older generation, it is your life, you need to prepare for opportunities they have not thought of yet, let alone tell you what to do.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Frank

from Recom.org

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